FalconStor Software Inc. announced at Storage Networking World Tuesday that its technology is now compatible with Intel Corp. processors based on 64-bit technology.
The new 64-bit version of the Melville, N.Y., companys IPStor technology uses the memory and processing power of 64-bit processors for NAS (network-attached storage), caching, snapshots, encryption and compression.
The 64-bit computing paradigm supports more than four times more virtual disks per system than under the current 32-bit system, according to Bernie Wu, vice president of business development. In addition, the 64-bit versions of IPStor products allow for faster performance, as the PCI-X buses and front-side bus on a 64-bit appliance make use of faster 4GB PCI-x Fibre Channel host bus adapters.
FalconStor also announced that its IPStor Enterprise Edition, VirtualTape Library and iSCSI Storage Server solutions now support Microsoft Corp.s iSCSI Software Initiator Version 2.0. FalconStor technology already supports Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Windows Storage Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2003.
NetEx, of Minneapolis, also made an iSCSI-related announcement at the show, introducing an initiative to extend its HyperIP TCP acceleration technology into the iSCSI storage market.
Adding HyperIP, a high-volume data transfer protocol for IP-based WANs (wide area networks), to iSCSI SANs (storage area networks) could result in a tenfold improvement in speed for long-distance remote data replication, said Robert MacIntyre, vice president of business development and marketing at NetEx. Using HyperIP acceleration technology for remote replication will help organizations deploy cost-effective iSCSI-based SANs and provide better and cheaper remote data replication performance than that of Fibre Channel-based alternatives, he said.
Two semiconductor companies also made significant announcements at SNW Tuesday. Vitesse Semiconductor Corp., of Camarillo, Calif., introduced two SAS (serial-attached SCSI) expanders aimed at the OEM market. Both the VSC7156 24 PHY and VSC7157 36 PHY are geared toward high-end enterprise server and enclosure applications where performance, traditional SAN features and flexibility are critical, according to Bob Cutter, vice president of the storage products division at Vitesse.
Both products offer end-to-end Fibre Channel-like zoning for control, security and performance; enhanced multiaffiliation STP/SATA Bridge for multi-initiator operation for Serial ATA end devices; improvements in table routing capacity; and growth in on-chip, user-accessible, enclosure services memory. They also offer dynamic multilevel adaptive equalization, programmable edge rate control and multiple levels of output pre-emphasis.
PMC-Sierra Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif., announced the PM2319-KIT maxSAS Reference System for fabric-attached and server-attached SATA/SAS disk array enclosures. The reference system uses the companys PM8387 36x3G or PM8388 SXP 24x3G high port count expander switches for SATA And SAS hard disk drive interconnect. The maxSAS SDK includes SES/SAS firmware libraries, host and embedded programming tools, reference system code, and full technical documentation.